The English legal system is the common law system.英國的法律制度屬普通法系。The "common law" is a term that came to be used for the laws and customs applied by the royal courts,"普通法"一詞用于指皇家法庭適用的法律和慣例，這些法律和慣例，and which progressively replaced local laws and customs applied in various local courts.這些法律和慣例隨著時間的推移逐漸取代了各地法院所適用的地方法律和慣例。In the United Kingdom, initially, law was judge-made and there was a system of precedent.在英國，法律最初為法官法，所采用的制度為判例制度。Judges' decisions were recorded and were regarded as persuasive and even binding, and these decisions were followed in comparable cases.法官的裁決被記錄下來，并被視為有說服力甚至有約束力的法則，于是這些裁決被法官在審理與之相類似的可比案件中采用。The point that prior to judicial decisions is a source of law is a distinctive feature of the "common law system".先前的此法裁決作為法的淵源之一，這是普通法系的一個顯著特征。This feature distinguishes such system from the "civil law system", which is prevalent in European continental countries.這一特征將與歐洲大陸法系區別開來。The "civil law system" originated from Roman law and was based upon a series of codes established in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.大陸法系盛行與歐洲大陸國家，它最初源于羅馬法，其所依據的是19世紀和20世紀制定的一系列法典。The basic elements of English law have been adopted in a number of Commonwealth countries,英國法的基本原理已被一些英聯邦國家所采納，most notably Australia, New Zealand, Canada (except Quebec) and the United States (except Louisiana).較為突出的'有澳大利亞，新西蘭，加拿大（魁北克省除外）和美國（路易斯安那州除外）。